(CNN) — The Australian government has been accused of racism after threatening five-year prison sentences for citizens who breach a temporary ban on travel between India and Australia.
“The Government does not make these decisions lightly,” Hunt said in the statement. “However, it is critical the integrity of the Australian public health and quarantine systems is protected and the number of Covid-19 cases in quarantine facilities is reduced to a manageable level.”
“We should be helping Aussies in India return, not jailing them,” he said. Around 9,000 Australians in India are registered with the government as wanting to return to Australia.
“I can’t believe we would impose such a travel ban on white Australians fleeing from, say, England,” he said.
“The need for such restrictions must be publicly justified. The Government must show that these measures are not discriminatory and the only suitable way of dealing with the threat to public health,” the statement said.
Speaking on local radio on Monday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the decision had been taken “in the best health interests of Australia.”
He said the powers would be “used responsibly” to enforce the block on arrivals from India, to ease pressure on the hotel quarantine system.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, April 27.
Rick Rycroft/AP
At a press conference Sunday, Foreign Minister Marise Payne denied the new measures were racist and said the ban was based on advice from Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly.
However, in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday, Kelly said that there was “no advice given” to impose fines and jail terms.
“That’s just how the Biosecurity Act works. If there is a breach of what is seen as an use of the emergency powers, then that’s what transpires,” Kelly said.
Kelly added that he had told the government something needed to be done about the number of positive cases coming into Australia’s hotel quarantine system.
Foreign Minister Payne said Sunday 57% of coronavirus infections detected in quarantine were from India at present.
Journalist Angus Watson contributed to this article.
You may also like
-
Afghanistan: Civilian casualties hit record high amid US withdrawal, UN says
-
How Taiwan is trying to defend against a cyber ‘World War III’
-
Pandemic travel news this week: Quarantine escapes and airplane disguises
-
Why would anyone trust Brexit Britain again?
-
Black fungus: A second crisis is killing survivors of India’s worst Covid wave